Clinical Scientist

Band 7: Registered Healthcare Scientist in Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics

A fantastic opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and motivated Band 7 Clinical Scientist to join the Clinical Transplantation Laboratory at the Royal London Hospital. This is a pivotal role within our dynamic team, supporting cutting-edge services in clinical transplantation and immunogenetics. This post qualifies for inner London weighting.

About the Laboratory

The Laboratory is part of the Blood Sciences division of the NHS East and Southeast London Pathology Partnership, which provides pathology services to the Homerton, Lewisham and Greenwich and the Barts Health NHS Trusts. The laboratory supports adult and paediatric stem cell transplantation, adult kidney transplantation, paediatric heart, lung and thymus transplantation as well as a variety of immunogenetics services.

Applicants in their final year of STP training will also be considered

Main duties of the job

The position requires a specialist practitioner in H&I who performs, analyses, interprets test results and prepares reports. The post holder will have appropriate delegated responsibility and will help in the day-to-day operation of either the Serology and Molecular sections of the laboratory and will be required to rotate between both sections. They will be required to liaise with clinical units and will undertake directed R&D projects including the development, validation and implementation of new procedures. Following appropriate training, the appointee would be required to participate in the out of hours on-call service for deceased donor organ transplantation.

Minimum Requirements

• Registered with the HCPC (BMS or CS), or working towards HCPC registration with significant H&I experience
• Experience in H&I laboratory techniques
• Excellent analytical, communication, and team-working skills

What We Offer

• A supportive and collaborative working environment
• Exposure to challenging clinical cases
• Flexible working options, including potential home working when workload allows

About us

The NHS East and South East London Pathology Partnership is an arms-length organisation providing pathology services to Barts Health NHS Trust, Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust. The Pathology Partnership is hosted by Barts Health.

The Pathology Partnership is based on well-established models for pathology networks, with the Royal London Hospital becoming the main hub laboratory for the network and Essential Service Laboratories (ESL) as a minimum at all other Hospital sites.

The 2020/21 total operating costs across the Partnership were c. £126m per annum with a workforce establishment of circa. 822 WTE. We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates as they are underrepresented within Barts Health at this band.

We are dedicated to being an outstanding place to work and will work with you to get the best experience. We know flexible working is not a one size fits all and will mean something different to everyone. We are inclusive, so if you are interested in flexible working, please speak to the recruiting manager.

Job responsibilities

For enquiries or to arrange a visit please contact Katy Derbyshire: katy.derbyshire@nhs.net

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents, please view the attachment/s below.

Person Specification

Experience

• Highly specialist experience of immunology and H&I serology and molecular genetics (gained over at least a 3 year post graduate period) covering all routine and non-routine tests
• Experience in HLA routine and non-routine serological techniques including Luminex antibody screening and identification and flowcytometric crossmatching
• Experience in HLA routine and non-routine molecular techniques, including HLA typing by NGS, PCR-SSP, Luminex and qPCR
• Experience of design and implementation of validation of new processes, kits, reagents and equipment and developing and carrying out laboratory audits that lead to changes in practice in the department
• Post HCPC registration experience working in an H&I laboratory
• Evidence of involvement in research projects.

Skills

• Highly developed practical laboratory skills and manual dexterity in order to carry out on call and routine laboratory tests with speed and accuracy
• Proven organizational skills and be methodical and adaptable
• Must be able to work unsupervised from week to week and prioritise own workload and those of junior staff
• Must be able develop and implement policies in all area of the laboratory
• Will be required to take overall responsibility for managing an aspect of the laboratory service, including placing contract orders and managing equipment as required. Options include but are not limited to training, audits, document control, H&S, asset management and change control
• Will be required to manage junior staff in the regular maintenance of equipment, departmental H&S or control of laboratory reagent and consumables stock
• Must be able to apply own judgement to the interpretation of a range of complex laboratory results, including Luminex antibody, HLA typing, and Flow crossmatch, correctly analysing the complex data and making judgements about potential further investigations
• Must be able to take into account patient clinical history, including relevance of patient disease type and stage, treatments and medication the patient might be on, as well as impact of previous transplants and other sensitizing events and type of donor and nature of any HLA mismatches
• Must also be able to propose quality improvement changes to all areas of the laboratory
• Computing skills (Microsoft Office), experience using Laboratory Information Systems and H&I analysis software

Knowledge

• Highly specialist knowledge in immunology and H&I serology and molecular genetics (gained over at least a 3 year post graduate period) covering all routine and non-routine tests

Qualifications

• Must have a BSc in a biological science
• Must have post graduate training in H&I gained either through the STP route, through BSHI Diploma followed by the clinical portfolio leading to HCPC state registration as a clinical scientist or through the BMS state registration followed by the Specialist Portfolio in H&I or Immunology

Other

• Desire to learn and develop own skills and career in H&I
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Participation in appropriate CPD scheme and maintenance of HCPC Registration
• Good communication skills with staff at all levels including other members of the interdisciplinary transplant teams
• Will need to provide and receive complex HLA data orally (in person and over the phone), in writing and in electronic form, where there are barriers to understanding. The data provided will influence whether or not a transplant goes ahead and may be critical.
• Must be able to plan and organise several complex activities in and out of hours e.g. in a lone working environment to obtain a crossmatch result, forming plans and adjusting those plans to the unique situation for each unique crossmatch
• Must be able effectively direct and manage the on-going routine duties of MTOs and Healthcare Scientists in a section of the laboratory under the guidance but not supervision of the Head of Section. The Section Head will provide and define the expectations but the post holder will manage the teams to deliver on those expectations
• Able to perform the duties of the post with any aids and adaptations

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.